But not the kings alone; the illustrious, the wealthy, the whole nation reposed in rock-tombs magnificently sculptured or rudely excavated, according to the means of the defunct. Behind the ruins of the stately temples of ancient Thebes, which extend from Gourna to Medinet Abou, and fill the narrow strip of desert between the inundated fields and the foot of the mountains, lies an interminable necropolis, whose graves, like the cells of a bee-hive, one close to the other, are hewn in the rocky ground of the plain, or in the slopes of the neighbouring hills. These grottoes, originally destined for sarcophagi and mummies, are now occupied by fellahs and their herds, as they were in the fifth and sixth century by pious anchorites; and, being roomy and situated at a considerable height above the plain, may be considered as the most healthy dwellings of the country. The oldest graves are hewn in the mountains; and at a later period, when the rocky plain at their foot alone gave room for these excavations, it gradually became invaded by the dead. In the more splendid of these mausoleums, high gates and walls inclosed deep courtyards, scooped out of the rock, and from these long corridors led to subterranean halls, profusely decorated with sculptures and paintings. Similar cities of the dead were found in Upper Egypt, near the cities of the living, wherever the adjoining rocks allowed them to be excavated. Those of Syout—the ancient Lycopolis, where along an extent of several miles the whole declivity of the Libyan mountains is perforated with graves rising in terraces to their very summit—of El Kab (Eileithyia), of Assuan (Syene), of Madfuneh (Abydos), of Kan (Antæopolis), and of a hundred other places, would in any other country excite the wonder of the traveller; here, where along the Nile one gigantic necropolis follows upon another, they hardly attract any attention. But the ancient Egyptians not only embalmed human bodies and preserved them in rock-tombs, they also converted into mummies the various animals to which they paid divine homage, and deposited them in subterranean cavities. This honour was paid to Apis, the ox-god, to the sacred Ibis, to dogs, cats, and even to the repulsive crocodile. * * * * * Besides the Rome of the Cæsars and the Rome of the Popes, there is a third Rome, scarcely less remarkable than the other two. The two former, gilded by the warm sunbeam, proudly rise above the banks of the Tiber with their ruins, palaces, and churches, while the latter lies hidden beneath the earth. [Illustration: GALLERY WITH TOMBS.]